I get three or four dead chickens and start out. I place them along the bank and usually tie them to some small tree so that the head will about reach the ground. I never build a pen around them. I wait until something get to eating them, and then I take a trap and place it directly in front of where it has been eaten, and use more traps if necessary. I have caught as many as three skunks around one chicken,--have caught more that way than any way I have tried.

Brother trappers try my plan and be convinced.

The entrails of muskrat, rabbit, chicken or duck will make far better bait than the animal or bird itself. In very cold weather I use the oil of wild duck which I save in the fall, but even in using the baits I speak of I invariably dig up the ground, unless it is a water set or a swamp set on some log.

In cold weather, or in fact during the entire trapping season, fur-bearing animals are searching for something to eat and consequently the trap that is baited is more liable to catch than one that is not. Fresh rabbit is an excellent bait for most animals.

CHAPTER XXII.

SCENT AND DECOYS.

It is claimed by trappers that some methods are good while others are not. I have bought nearly all of the methods put on the market and find that all are good if properly used, says a well known trapper.

Experience has taught me that you can catch any kind of an animal with decoy. Experience has also taught me that you can catch any kind of an animal without decoy. My belief is that there is one decoy that is of great value, especially in the running season, and it is that of the famous beaver castor. Few animals can pa.s.s it without investigating.

You can, however, use all the decoys put together, and if you do not set the trap properly you might as well set traps on top of a straw stack, back of some barn, to catch a fox, and you will get him just as quick. But if your trap is set somewhere near his haunts, on a knoll or under vines, at a hollow stump, tree or hole, and baited with a good piece of fresh bait, you will catch just as many if not more in the fall, than you will with the decoy.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CAUGHT WHERE SCENT IS MUCH USED.]

In winter and spring I prefer decoy, although I have caught a good many foxes without it. During winter and spring, the main thing is to know just how and where to set the trap. The best way to find this out is to study the animal you wish to catch, then go after him. A fox is almost as easy to catch as a skunk if you conceal your trap, chain and all, and leave things as you found them around the trap.

It is well to buy some good methods, for they will give you a good idea of your work and help you get a start. Should you try them and fail the first time, try again. Keep right at trying and after a while you will get to catching foxes. There is no man that can use another man's methods as well as the discovered himself; at least, not until he learns them and finds out how to use them. I care not how plainly the one selling his method explains it to others, it takes practice before the best catches can be made.

About scents, some may be good, but most of them are worthless. I sent to an old trapper for mink scent and it came in a plain tin can, I used it in every way I could and mink would turn and go around it, so I stopped using it and took to the old Scotch scent. Here is the recipe for making it:

Take two dozen minnows three inches long, put in two quart cans filled with water and seal. Let stand one month in warm place, then put on bait for mink or skunk. I use no scent for mink in water sets.

If a mink is hungry, writes an Iowa trapper, and finds bait that has been left for him, he will pay no attention to human scent, while if he is not hungry, he will not take the bait, be it ever so fresh. A mink will sometimes make a trail in the fresh snow by pa.s.sing several times over the same route and then never use that trail again. I have also known otter to do the same. I caught two mink last winter, in a ditch, setting my trap in the water. The first night I caught a medium-sized mink and the third night I caught a small one. I believe that I would have caught every mink that went up that ditch if it had not froze up, and snowed so much during the time, that I could not keep my traps properly set. If a person sets out a line of traps in this country while there is snow on the ground, he is simply going to a great deal of trouble to give them to some thief.

In trapping mink I watch for signs and when I locate a mink I consider it mine and it generally is. If you bait a trap where you may think it is a good place to catch a mink, it often happens that you may make a good many trips to your trap and not succeed. You may say to yourself that it is human scent that keeps them away, when perhaps there has not been a mink near your trap. My advice to young trappers is not to set your traps where a mink may go, but set it where you know he is going, and you will find it no trick to catch mink.

[Ill.u.s.tration: YOUNG TRAPPERS DISCUSSING SCENT.]

In writing about "Mistakes of Trappers" an Alleghany Mountain trapper of fifty years' experience says: The average trapper makes a mistake in listening to some one's ideas about scents for trapping an animal, instead of going to the forests, the fields and the streams and there learning its nature, its habits and ways, and its favorite food. He also makes a mistake by spending much time in looking after scents, rubber gloves to handle traps with, and wooden pinchers to handle bait with, instead of spending his time in learning the right way and the right place to set his trap. For one little slip and the game is gone, if the trap is not properly set.

We make mistakes in thinking that the fox is more sly in some states than in others. Not long ago I received a letter from a friend in Maine asking if I did not think that the fox was harder to trap in some states than others, Now the states in which I have trapped are rather limited, but I have trapped in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, mostly Pennsylvania. I have also trapped in one or two other states and wherever I found the fox, I found the same sly animal and in order to trap it successfully it was necessary to comply with the natural conditions.

[Ill.u.s.tration: TEACHING THE BOY ART OF TRAPPING.]

The worst mistake of all mistakes is made by the one who uses poison to kill foxes with. Let me tell you of an instance that came under my observation four years ago in the southern part of this county. My road was over the divide between the waters of the Alleghany and Susquehanna. About five miles of the road lay over a mountain that was thickly wooded, with no settlers. While crossing this mountain I saw the carca.s.ses of four foxes lying in the road. On making inquiries I learned that a man living in the neighborhood was making a practice each winter of driving over the roads in that section and putting out poisoned meat to kill foxes.

I chanced to meet this man not long ago and I said, "Charley, what luck did you have trapping last winter?" His reply was, "Not much, only two foxes. Old Shaw dogged them out of the country." (Referring to a man who hunted with dogs.) I said, "Charley, don't you think that poison business had something to do with it?" He replied, "Oh, h--l, there will be foxes after I am dead." This man calls himself a trapper and is quite an extensive fur buyer.

For fox decoy, get five or six musk glands from rats in the springtime; put enough trout or angle worms with them to make a pint, cork them tight and leave in the sun thru the summer, and add the essence from one skunk (squeeze out the essence, don't put in the bag). I have never seen a better decoy and I have used many. You can use either one alone. I have caught many foxes with trout oil alone.

Remember the bait and scent is no good whatever as long as there remains a trace of human odor; the whole secret is, _Be Careful_.

The beaver castors or bark sacks and the oil stones are found near the vent in four sacks in both male and female. In taking them out, cut clear around them, and take all out together with as little meat as possible. The bark sacks contain a yellow substance. To get the contents, tie a string around the hole in the sacks and rub them between the hands until soft, then cut them open and squeeze the contents into a gla.s.s jar or bottle. To get the oil from the oil stone, cut the end off and squeeze it. Keep separate and mix as directed:

1st. Take the castor of one beaver, add 20 drops oil of cinnamon, 10 drops oil Anise, and "wine" of beaver to make the bait thick like mush.

2nd. Take the castor sacks of one beaver, add 7 drops of oil sa.s.safras, 7 drops Anise, 10 drops oil from the oil stone.

3rd. Take the castor sacks of one beaver, add 10 drops of Jamaica rum, 5 drops oil of Anise, 5 drops oil cloves, 5 drops oil sa.s.safras, 5 drops oil Rhodium.

4th. Take the castor sacks of one beaver, add 10 drops oil from the oil stones, and beaver's urine enough to make the bait like mush.

For beaver bait, get six castors off of beavers, one nutmeg, 12 cloves, 30 grains or cinnamon and mix up with a little whiskey to make in a paste or like mixed mustard. Put in a bottle and cork. In a few days it will get strong, then use as a bait on pan of trap.

You catch no foxes if there is any human scent around, says an Eastern trapper. I will tell you how I set a trap for fox in a brook of running water. Have your trap free from rust (beeswax is good to prevent rust on a trap); have on a pair of water-proof boots, put the bait on a rock about two feet from sh.o.r.e, and set trap on a rock three inches from sh.o.r.e. Cover trap about one inch with moss; have it rise above water, and place a rock for reynard to step on before he steps onto the trap rock. Put a few drops of scent on the bait, of the right kind, and be sure the trap is under water; handle bait and moss with sharp stick. Now I am sure you would catch no fox if you worked from the bank. Always walk in water when going to trap.

I will give a pointer on using decoys or scent for making trails, writes a Western trapper. Take a piece of sponge, run stout string thru it, pour on your medicine and then place the sponge in the hollow of the sole of your rubber boot, bring the ends of the string up over the instep, cross them and tie on the back side of the boot and it will make a trail that a mink or c.o.o.n will follow a mile or more.

[Ill.u.s.tration: TRAPPER'S HOME IN COLORADO.]

The slyer animals, such as the fox and mink, soon learn to a.s.sociate all fancy smells with danger, and then most scents act as warning instead of a lure, writes an Ohio trapper. For mink bait I think a fresh muskrat carca.s.s is about the best of anything, because muskrat is their common food and therefore they are not nearly as liable to be suspicious of it as of some strange scent, such as amber oil, anise oil, oil of cinnamon or oil of lavender, one or more of which is nearly always used in combination scents.

I generally take a hen carca.s.s, smear it with the musk of a muskrat, and use it for a drag, as it will make a trail that a mink is pretty sure to follow to the trap which should be set in a hole near an old stump or log if such a hole can be found, and then covered with fine dry dirt, rotten wood or what is better than either, the feathers from the chicken carca.s.s which has been used as a drag. I find it a better way to cut the bait into small pieces and use several pieces with each trap, but if only one piece is used it is best to stake it fast. If an animal only has to make one trip into the enclosure to get all the bait he will not be as apt to be taken as if he made several trips, which he is pretty sure to do if the bait is cut into small pieces and scattered around in the enclosure.

There seems to be quite a difference of opinion among trappers as to the "attractive" value of Scents and Decoys. Some praise them, while others consider them of little value.

In our years of experience as Editor of the H-T-T we have read thousands of trappers' letters from all parts of America, which in addition to personal observation when on the trapping line, enables us to say that "Scents" and "Decoys," if rightly made, prepared and used are of value.

There is no question but that the s.e.xual organs of the female secured "when in heat" and preserved in alcohol is a great lure for the males of that specie.

CHAPTER XXIII.

HUMAN SCENT AND SIGN.

There is a great deal said just now about the human scent theory, writes an Illinois trapper. Some claim that you can catch no animal if there is any human scent around, and they hardly take time to set their traps properly for fear of leaving scent. I always considered that the most important thing in setting traps was to cover them properly, and to disturb things as little as possible.

When your traps are set everything should be as natural as before. By that I mean that when you are trapping for the shrewdest game, such as fox, mink, otter, wolves, etc. For other animals such as skunk and muskrat, you need not use such caution, for they will blunder into a trap no matter how carelessly it is set. Still it is always best to cover your signs properly for you can never know what animal may come along. If your traps are carefully covered you are as liable to get a valuable pelt as a low priced one. Use care in setting; study well the nature and habits of the game you are trapping, and you will be successful. Never begin trapping until the fur is prime for one prime skin is worth more than five or six poor ones.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A FEW DAYS CATCH.]

Among trappers there is a variety of opinion as to the different kind of baits to use, and also as to the different ways to avoid the smell of iron or steel traps. Some boil their traps in willow bark; others dip their traps in melted tallow or beeswax.

I have had a fox get into my snowshoe tracks and follow a long ways because it was better traveling. Now that shows he was not afraid of human scent writes a Vermont trapper. Now about iron. How often does a fox go through a wire fence or go near an old sugar house where there are iron grates. That shows he is not afraid of scent of iron.

Once there was an old trapper here, and the young men wanted him to show them how to set a fox trap, and he told them he would, so he got them out to show them how, and this is what he told them. "Remove all suspicion and lay a great temptation." Well there it is. Now in order to remove all suspicion you must remove all things that are not natural. A man's tracks, and where he has been digging around with a spade or with his hands are not natural around a spring, are they?

No. Well then, there is where the human scent question comes in. By instinct he is shown that man is his enemy, and when a man has pawed the bait over he uses his sense and knows that danger is there, for it is not natural.